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The CITE, a blog published by the National Association of College Stores, takes a look at the intersection of education and technology, highlighting issues that range from course materials to learning delivery to the student experience. Comments, discussion, feedback, and ideas are welcome.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Laptop Is Tool of Choice for College Students

College students certainly love their
laptops. In fact, 25% of the respondents to a back-to-school technology usage survey
conducted by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) said they would choose their computer
over a family member or beer if they were stranded on a desert island.

The survey found that 85% of U.S. college
students own a laptop and 41% consider their laptop their most important
possession over their car or television. More than half of the students
surveyed said they planned to buy new machine before heading back to school in
the fall, with a third of those students considering a new laptop purchase.

Fast performance is the No. 1 consideration
for students when buying a laptop (40%), followed by price (26%) and battery
life (25%). Students preferred laptops to tablets by a two-to-one margin,
according to the study.

“Students expect more from their computers
than ever before—they want them to be equally as good at streaming their favorite
TV show as they are at crunching numbers in a math class,” Gabe Gravning, director
of marketing at AMD, said in a press release.